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US-backed Kurdish militants kill 5 Iraqi Arabs and Turkmen, wound 20 during a demonstration in Kirkuk
Wed December 31, 2003 11:17 AM ET
By Adnan Hadi KIRKUK, Iraq (Reuters) -
At least five Iraqis were killed and more than 20 wounded Wednesday when gunfire erupted during a demonstration in Kirkuk, where Kurds are bidding for more control of the oil-rich northern city.
Several thousand Arab and Turkmen protesters marched on the headquarters of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK), one of two main Kurdish factions, and surrounded the building, chanting "No to federalism, Kirkuk is Iraqi."
Kirkuk's chief of police said two people were killed in a burst of gunfire. Doctors said three more people died later at a nearby hospital and at least 20 were wounded.
Several wounded said they had been shot at by PUK peshmerga fighters. But Jalal Jawhar, head of the PUK office in Kirkuk, said Turkmen protesters opened fire on the PUK offices, wounding three members of Kirkuk's largely Kurdish police.
The chief of police said his men had not fired on anyone.
Witnesses said U.S. tanks and armored vehicles quickly moved in to seal off the area, fanning out near the PUK offices and a local government building to keep protesters at bay.
The incident is the latest episode of violence among Kurds and others vying for power in the city, where Saddam Hussein forced out Kurds and Turkish-speaking Turkmens to Arabise the site of Iraq's richest oil reserves.
Kurds on Iraq's U.S.-appointed Governing Council are proposing that a future, federal Iraqi government grant broad autonomy to the northern zone, with Kirkuk as its capital and having a say over other areas with large Kurdish populations.
That plan is bitterly opposed by Turkmens and Arabs.
About 12 people were killed in August when protests over the sacking of a Turkmen shrine in the ethnically divided town of Tuz Khurmatu -- where Turkmens accuse Kurds of theft and intimidation -- spread to Kirkuk.
FEARS OF NEW YEAR ATTACK
In Baghdad, U.S.-backed security forces increased patrols in the capital due to fears that insurgents may chose the New Year period to launch attacks against coalition forces. Brigadier General Martin Dempsey, the commander of the 1st Armored Division responsible for the capital, told reporters his men would be on high alert for potential attacks over the next few days after a series of assaults on Christmas Day.
"We always take a posture of extra vigilance on key dates in the calendar," he said. "We have gathered intelligence on what could happen over the next 72 hours...and you can be sure the 1st AD will be ready to do what it gets paid to do."
In the past four days, two U.S. soldiers have been killed in separate roadside bomb blasts, raising to 327 the number of U.S. troops killed in action since the war was launched in March.
Wednesday, another roadside bomb exploded in central Baghdad, wounding five U.S. soldiers and three members of the Iraqi Civil Defense Corps, Dempsey said.
Following allegations of overcharging by Halliburton, a Texas oil-services firm which formerly employed Vice President Dick Cheney, the U.S. military said one of its energy units will take over the task of providing fuel for Iraq.
The Pentagon's Defense Energy Support Center said it would assume control of rebuilding Iraq's oil industry and that it would award new contracts through a competitive bidding process.
Earlier this month, the Pentagon said a draft audit found evidence that Kellogg, Brown & Root, a subsidiary of Halliburton that was awarded a no-bid contract to rebuild Iraq's oil industry, may have overcharged U.S. taxpayers $61 million to supply fuel to Iraq from Kuwait. Halliburton denies wrongdoing.
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| Earth, a planet hungry for peace |
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| The Israeli apartheid (security) wall around Palestinian population centers (Ran Cohen, pmc, 5/24/03). |
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| The Israeli apartheid (security) wall around Palestinian population centers in the West Bank, like a Python (Alquds, 1/25/03. |
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